Senate GOP unanimously abandons Trump after he opens door to Ghislaine Maxwell pardon

Every Senate Republican went on record against a presidential pardon for convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, breaking with President Donald Trump, who has refused to rule one out.

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) forced the vote Wednesday through a procedural move called unanimous consent, which passes automatically when no senator objects. No Republican objected, according to Axios.

That meant Republicans agreed Maxwell "should not" receive "a pardon, commutation, or any other form of executive clemency" — the language of Rosen's resolution.

Trump has given Democrats plenty of material to work with. Last July, while visiting his Turnberry resort in Scotland, he told reporters he was open to the question.

"Well, I'm allowed to give her a pardon, but nobody's approached me with it, nobody's asked me about it. It's in the news about that—that aspect of it, but right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it," Trump told reporters, as Axios reported.

Trump and Maxwell moved in the same elite social circles in the 1990s and early 2000s, CNN reported. When she was arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2020, Trump's response drew immediate criticism.

"I just wish her well, frankly," the president said at an earlier White House briefing.

Rosen's resolution cited Trump's repeated refusals to close the door, noting that "President Donald Trump has publicly stated that he possesses the authority to grant a pardon to Ghislaine Maxwell in this matter and has declined to categorically rule out exercising such authority."

"...granting a pardon, commutation, or any other form of executive clemency to Ghislaine Maxwell would be inconsistent with the interests of justice and accountability for crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children," the resolution said.

"...the President should not grant a pardon, commutation, or any other form of executive clemency to Ghislaine Maxwell," the resolution added.

Democrats argued the vote was necessary because Maxwell has been openly lobbying for clemency.

"She is campaigning over and over again to get that pardon from President Trump, and this president has not ruled it out," Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) said earlier this year.

The vote also drew attention to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal attorney, whose handling of the Epstein files has drawn bipartisan criticism. Last year, Blanche personally interviewed Maxwell for nine hours across two days. She was transferred to a lower-security federal prison shortly afterward.

Epstein survivor Dani Bensky testified against Blanche's nomination at his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing earlier this month.

"According to public reporting, Mr. Blanche spent approximately nine hours meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell. He did not even spend nine minutes meeting with a survivor," Bensky told senators.

At a Senate budget hearing in May, Blanche committed that he would not recommend a pardon for Maxwell — but did not commit to advising against one, Axios reported.

Wednesday's vote came as U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ordered Blanche to deliver unredacted Epstein-related documents to his chambers by 3 p.m., MeidasTouch reported — the same day the Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to vote on Blanche's nomination as the nation's permanent top law enforcement officer, Roll Call reported.

The resolution is symbolic and non-binding.